Featured Article — Windows Server Simplify printer management with printer pooling
A printer pool comprises multiple identical printers, all configured as a single printer instance. Printer pooling enables a Windows 2000 server to manage multiple printers with a single print driver instance. Printer pooling therefore enables you to configure and manage several printers as one, which can simplify printer administration. Printer pooling also provides load balancing because Windows 2000 directs print jobs to the connected printers based on jobs pending at each printer. The printer pool can contain network printers as well as local printers, so you can use a workstation to handle print server tasks rather than a server while still maintaining the pool on the server for administrative purposes.
Configuring a printer pool is easy. Set up the printers and connect them to their respective ports, or in the case of network printers, to their host computers. On the pooling computer, open the Printers folder and install the driver for the printer. Next, open the Ports page of the printer's properties sheet. At the bottom of the Ports page select the Enable Printer Pooling check box. In the ports list select each port to which a printer for the pool is connected. Click Add Port if you need to add one or more network ports for shared printers across the network. Click OK when everything is set. |
